Green Houses are the New College Dorms

- Lauren Silverman

Yesterday the New York Times featured a story on the “SEED House,” Oberlin College’s new sustainability house. In “sustainable” college houses, you are more likely to find people competing over who can take the shortest shower, not who can chug the most beer.

“Green living” isn’t only popular at hippie colleges such as Oberlin. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where I go to school, some dorms and many cooperatives are taking a shot at sustainable living. A few weeks ago, when I was hanging out at a friend’s cooperative, I was chided for leaving on the bathroom light. My friend yelled, “We’re in an energy saving competition with the other cooperatives!" Compared to college dormitories and apartments, cooperatives are in a prime position to save both energy and money.

When you live in a cooperative you buy everything in bulk, reducing the price, packaging waste, and gas-guzzling trips to the grocery store. Communal living and cooking also helps cut down on the carbon footprint. In addition to greening daily routines, by turning off heaters and unplugging appliances, kids in cooperatives are greening the common house party. Just last month, Ann Arbor’s Luther House featured a “Go Local” party, where all the beer was locally made and to get in the door you had to “Bring Your Own Cup” aka "B.Y.O.C". Not only was this demand good for the environment, but it was good for conversation too. My friend’s polka-dot mug and my gold chalice were excellent ice-breakers.

Sustainable houses and parties are a great start. I just hope the green trend grows beyond the walls to surrounding college campuses.

Internships are the New Summer Jobs

-Lauren Silverman

Back in the day, when school ended for summer, it meant it was time to get a job. Maybe you’d work nights at an ice cream store, bag groceries at the local market, or watch over kids at day camp. Don’t get me wrong, I do have a few friends who are filling out applications for these more traditional summer jobs, but most of them are filling out applications for low-paying, high profile, summer internships. Today, high school and college students are willing to sacrifice the short-term benefits of having extra cash for the long-term benefits of a full resume.

When I began my summer internship search I thought it might be possible to secure an internship that paid, and was meaningful. On Idealist.org, an interactive website that helps match individuals with volunteer and job opportunities, you do have the option of specifying that you are searching for a paid internship. But let’s just say the results list is real short. Internships that pay are more difficult to find than a younger sibling at a raging Fourth of July fair. And even if you can get your hands on an internship that pays, like I did, a few calculations will show you that your stipend of $500 a month amounts to about $3.50 per hour. The last time my hourly wage was $3.50 an hour, it was the summer after 5^th grade when I was a “mother’s helper”.

Yet I consider myself lucky. More and more of my friends are opting for 9-5 internships that don’t offer any reimbursements whatsoever. They’re doing this for two main reasons. First, they are genuinely concerned with working on a project they value. Second, teachers, employers, and parents are stressing the importance of gaining experience and bulking up resumes. As a result, internships have become the new summer jobs.